The best rewards for $50K spend

The current signup offer for the Amex Blue for Business Card has been extended to February 22, 2017 [UPDATE: OFFER HAS EXPIRED]. The offer is different from most signup offers because rather than giving you a set number of bonus points for meeting minimum spend, this offer is mostly about increased card earnings for the first 6 months to a year. Yes, you get a standard bonus of 10K points after first purchase, but you also get 10 points per dollar at restaurants for 6 months (up to $2K spend), and 2 points per dollar on all purchases for the first year (up to $50K max). This increased earning “bonus” reminds me of a couple of other cards…

One similar, but simpler offer is with the Discover It Miles Card. The signup bonus for that card is simply the doubling of all of your first year earnings. So, the usual 1.5% cash back really equates to 3% cash back for all spend.

Another similar offer is with the BB&T Spectrum Rewards Visa. The BB&T card offers 3% cash back in the first 3 months of card ownership. It also offers a standard 5% annual bonus on rewards earned, plus another 30% bonus if you spent $50K or more. These bonuses combine to 4.05% cash back if you spend $50,000 or more in the first 3 months (as long as you leave the card alone after that). While that’s a great deal for those who can easily spend $50K in 3 months, it is unfortunately limited to residents of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and DC.

Back to Blue…

The value of the two other offers mentioned above is obvious. The Discover It Miles card earns 3% cash back in the first year. If you spent $50K in the first year, you would get a total of $1500. The BB&T Spectrum Rewards Visa earns up to 4.05%. If you spend exactly $50K in the first 3 months, you would get a total of $2,025. How about the Amex Blue for Business Card? How much value would one get from $50K first year spend?

Let’s review again the signup bonus:

[UPDATE: OFFER HAS EXPIRED]

10K after first purchase

10X restaurants for 6 months (up to $2K spend)

2X on all first year purchases (up to $50K spend)

And, consider a standard feature of the card:

30% annual relationship bonus

Let’s look at how much you would earn if you spend exactly $50,000 in non-restaurant spend:

Signup bonus: 10K

2X points: $50K X 2X = 100K

30% relationship bonus: $50K x .3 = 15K

Total: 125K (that amounts to 2.5X earnings on $50K spend)

What if you threw in $2K of restaurant spend in the first 6 months on top of the $50K spend? Let’s look:

Signup bonus: 10K

2X points: $50K X 2X = 100K

10X points at restaurants: $2K x 10 = 20K

30% relationship bonus: 52K x .3 = 15.6K

Total: 145.6K

How much are 125K to 145.6K Membership Rewards points worth?

The Amex Blue for Business card earns Membership Rewards points, but they are not transferable to airlines unless you also have a premium Membership Rewards card or the Everyday card. Without another such card, you’ll get less than 1 cent per point value for most redemptions, but you may be able to get 1 cent per point by trading in points for certain gift cards. So, at this level, those 125K to 145.5K points are worth $1,250 to $1,455. If this is your plan, you’ll do better with the Discover It Miles card which would net $1,500 cash back after $50K spend, and much better with the BB&T card ($2,025).

With the addition of a “real” membership rewards card, though, those points can be transferred to many different airlines. My current reasonable redemption value for Membership Rewards points is 1.82 cents per point. That means that if you use your points wisely it is reasonable to expect to get that much value or more. At that value, you would rake in $2,275 to $2,650 worth of flights. That’s clearly better than Discover It Miles ($1,500), but personally I’d prefer the certain $2,025 from the BB&T card, than the possibility of getting slightly more value from flights. An exception would be if I had a plan for how I would use those Membership Rewards points, and knew that I’d get excellent value from them.

Where the Blue for Business offer really shines is when it is paired with the Amex Business Platinum card. That card’s 50% rebate on pay with points awards makes it possible to get 2 cents per point value for many flights without having to worry about award availability. That means that those 125K to 145.6K points would be worth up to $2,500 to $2,912. That’s enough of a boost over BB&T’s $2,025 to make the Blue for Business card a better choice.

Summary

The Amex Blue for Business offer is best for those who will spend up to $50K over 12 months, but only if the card is paired with a card that allows Membership Rewards point transfers or, better yet, the Amex Business Platinum card which provides a means for getting 2 cents per point value. But do keep in mind that the offer is currently expected to end on February 22. It will be interesting to see if it is extended again as it was earlier this month.

The BB&T Spectrum Rewards Visa is the best choice for those who can spend $50K or more in the first 3 months. At exactly $50K spend, the Blue for Business card may be a better choice (depending upon what other Amex cards you have), but if you can spend significantly more than $50K in that time, the BB&T card is best since its bonus structure is not limited to $50K spend. Unfortunately, this card is an option only for residents of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and DC.

The Discover It Miles Card is a good choice for everyone else with plans to spend a lot in the next 12 months.

Greg is the owner, founder, and primary author of the Frequent Miler. He earns millions of points and miles each year, mostly without flying, and dedicates this blog to teaching others how to do the same.

I’m sure you could add an AU. The BB&T business cards do not have the same rewards, so I don’t think they would help.

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1 year ago

Guest

Crys

What kind of credit limit is customary with BB&T?

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1 year ago

Guest

Telnar

Can Blue for Business be product changed into Business Platinum (after earning the 125k MR points) for those of us who have had Business Platinum before but want to get it again without a hard pull to more efficiently spend those (and perhaps other) MR points?

I haven’t tried it, but I expect so. That’s a very good idea: keep as Blue but product change to Business Platinum when ready to redeem points for airfare. If you’re really lucky maybe they’ll offer you an upgrade bonus too.

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1 year ago

Guest

WR

Totalling up the MR is very misleading, as you are watering down the value of the initial bonus. It makes more sense to look at the value of the incremental spend. After 10k from bonus, and 20k from $2k in restaurant spend (so 30k for $2k spend, pretty decent), then it is just 2.3x for all spend up to $50k. The opportunity cost of putting $50k spend on it just for 2.3xMR is that you could be applying that $50k to the minimum spend requirements of 20+ new cards. Signup bonuses for 20 new cards would easily be worth more than 115k MR, probably 10x as much. So unless you have zero new cards to apply for, to me it’s a horrible idea to throw $50k spend on this just to get 2.3xMR

The point of this post was to look at cards where extra rewards for spend ARE the signup bonus. So, since I’m comparing signup bonuses, I felt that I should include the 10K.

Yes, it is always the case that signing up for new cards is the best use of spend, but many readers do not like to signup for many cards. This post shows a few examples of what is possible with a single card and a lot of spend.

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1 year ago

Guest

Bigl

If paired with schwab amex you could redeem into account at 1.5c correct?

The terms for both state:
“The anniversary bonus is calculated by multiplying the anniversary bonus percentage by the Annual Earn.”

I could see them arguing that the definition of the Annual Earn is only the 1% earnings, not the 3% earnings, but then they would be applying the 5% bonus incorrectly.

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1 year ago

Guest

Mike

I churned the BBT card hard for 3 months and made a good chuck of cash back rewards. 6 months later when it was barely being used, BBT shut my account down because I was deemed a risk so no yearly bonus.

Do you know anything about the 0% APR on the card Amex card? It’s an amex card so I get extra spending over my credit limit (like everyone else lol…). Does the 0% still apply if I spend over my current credit limit of $3,700? I plan on buying items to resell with this card. Then using the profits to invest in index funds. I have funds to pay back the money in 12 months. I’m just really curious about what happens. I know that other Amex cards require you to pay the full amount over the limit each month. How about a 0% APR card?

Can one get approved for two business accounts on the same day (blue & spg) using different browsers, what if you already have a business account (gold) and what if you already have five accounts with amex? Thanks!

1) Can you get approved for two business accounts on the same day?
A: Yes, though I have always understood the unwritten rule to be that one would need to be a revolver (credit card) and the other a charge card.

2) Can you apply for the Blue and SPG cards on the same day?
A: I haven’t tried, but I have always read that if you apply for two revolving credit cards in one day, the second application will automatically be put on hold for 5 days before being considered. That said, I found this Flyertalk thread where a member says he was able to get two credit cards approved in one day with a call and manual processing. I wouldn’t count on it, but perhaps not impossible:

3) What if you already have five accounts with Amex?
A: It depends what type of accounts. Conventional wisdom is that you can have 4 total credit cards (business or personal) and 4 charge cards. Over the past couple of years, some folks have found that they could have more charge card accounts. I have only heard two or three stories of someone having 5 credit cards with Amex, but have never personally seen it.

I’d advise caution regarding the BB&T card. I surpassed 50k in spend during the three month initial promo period. However, near the end of the third month, the account was frozen for review and later closed. Based on my experience, if you put any substantial amount of spend on this card, they’ll probably elect to close it to avoid paying out any bonuses at the end of the first year.

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